Theme Thursday: Architecture - can I have a do over?

I was so looking forward to this week's photo challenge from Clan Donaldson. Obi is an architect, for crying out loud.

So I thought I would get some valuable insight from him concerning subject, angle, etc. But like that old saying with the plumber and his own home having traumatic pipe syndrome (isn't there a saying?) Obi was really not interested in playing along. 

His only half-hearted suggestion was to concentrate on minutia. So many unappealing, uninteresting architectural photography focuses on the piece as a whole, while the real interest is in looking at a specific element from an unusual angle. 

So he had me taking photos of things like the iron fish scale grating over the basement windows at our magnificent cathedral church. Only problem? You have to have an artistic eye and real talent to make that work. Two important factors I am woefully missing. 

I was able to put that advice to work when the subject had obvious beauty of its own, however. 

Last weekend we met some friends at Orlando's Catholic Shrine, Mary, Queen of the Universe, for Saturday vigil mass. 

So at 7:30 at night, with Obi and the kids waiting with unsuppered stomachs in the car, I snapped a few photos of the striking bronze entry doors with their haunting mosaics and bronze reliefs. 

In appropriate triptych display, the doors feature scenes from the the Old Testament, the Gospel, and the continuing Church.  This mosaic above is over the third door, Our Lady with hand outstretched in blessing over a succession of Popes. 

As I mentioned, this was at night, I used no flash, only the light that illuminates from above, and I used my camera's built in editing feature "pastel" to add some interest to a really poor quality photo.

WhaddoIthink?  It looks interesting, you see the feature from a new perspective. But I probably won't ever look at it again and I certainly won't be hanging it on any wall. But it was fun trying.

Here are some more shots for you to see the doors in context. (They are really poor quality, and I didn't want to steal someone's photos off the internet to show you what it looks like. Even the shrine's website does not have any pictures.)

The doors are by far the most impressive element of this beautiful shrine. Seeing them in person is alone enough reason to visit and pray here. If you are ever in Orlando...